Model sues Jockey for below-the-belt business practices

A model is suing underwear maker Jockey for using his image long after his contract with them expired.

Angoston argues that this is harming his career and prevented him from providing modeling services for other men’s clothes companies as they think he is still endorsing Jockey. Angoston said he has been typecast as “the face of Jockey”. He is suing the underwear company for damages of up to US$1 million.

Jockey and Angoston initially had an agreement in which Jockey would pay the model US$15,000 for using his image in commercial advertising from September 2016 to September 2017. Angoston, who has worked with Macy’s, Nike, Kohls, Bonton, L.L. Bean, and Sketchers as a model, was told by Jockey that they were not interested in renewing his contract when it ended in September 2017.

But he found later that his face was still used to sell Jockey products at retail stores. His model agency told Jockey to stop using his image. But Jockey refused to accede to the demand.

On May 31, 2018, Angoston went to Macy’s at Herald Square in Manhattan and saw Jockey ads featuring him still being displayed without his authorization.

There is a similar case in which a model sued retailer Dillard’s in 2011 for using his image on underwear packaging.

Stephen Clark claimed he modeled underwear for a shoot in 1998 for advertisements, but Dillard’s started using the photos on underwear packages from 2005 to 2011, without paying Clark.

Unfortunately for Clark, all the parties involved no longer had records of the original agreement, and the court ruled that he had taken too long to file a lawsuit and the statute of limitations had kicked in.

Angoston seems to have avoided that issue as he filed a lawsuit quickly after discovering Jockey was using his image without permission. Creators would do well to keep records, and detailed notes of meetings with clients, noting when and where the meeting took place, and what was said, and to PitchMark these for a public record of the documents' existence.